Balance of Power
by Sabishiiko
Summary: Heimdall and Loki debateing the nature and necessity of evil from a Norse mythos viewpoint.


(According to the Norse Mythology notes in the extras on the Loki DVD's, Ragnarok is brought closer each time the gods break their word or act unjustly themselves.

Also, according to Norse viewpoint all power in the universe is held in a massive check and balance sort of order, this is why, at Ragnarok each pair of combatants must kill the other. i.e. Loki – Heimdall, Thor – Midgardsomer, etc.)

**Balance of Power**

He would kill Loki.

He must.

For the sake of his right eye which Loki had stolen.

For the blood right of Balder whom Loki had murdered.

For the honor of the Asir that Loki had sullied.

"Why must you always look so serious?"

"Loki!"

The street lamp above Heimdall made a crisp circle of light beyond the edge of which Loki stood obscured by the darkness of night.

"You will die at my hand Loki!" He warned, gloved hands tightly clenched at his sides. Purple hair tossing over the empty socket of his right eye with the fury of his words.

"Why?"

Heimdall was taken aback. _Why?!_

"How can you even ask after all that you've done? You, Loki, god of Evil! Greed, deceit, perversion and murder are your domain. Full of lies and cruelty. Don't tell me the 9 worlds wouldn't be made better by your absence!"

"Are you so sure?" Loki's voice was calm as gently blowing snow, and just as cold.

"Why else would I come all this way to hunt you down? Why else should I demean myself with taking this ridiculous form? Of course I'm sure!" Heimdall asserted, but his voice fell. He was sure, _wasn't he? _

"Tell me Heimdall, is a god of evil the same thing as an evil god?"

Heimdall hesitated.

"No."

Loki stepped forward. The darkly brooding god of light and the shining countenance of the god of darkness regarded each other across the ring of brightness that seemed to separate them from all the world, freezing fast this one moment.

"What have I done that was not set before me by the weave of fate and the weft of time? Should I really be judged so harshly for merely accomplishing what I was foretold to do? Doomed to be bound to a stone with my own son's entrails, endlessly tortured. Does anyone deserve that sort of punishment? Is that what you gods call justice?"

Liar you say? Deceiver? And yet, when have I broken my word once given? Can Odin say as much? Can Tyr?

It is the existence of evil that makes men cling desperately to what is good and right. It is the triumph over evil that makes heroes of ordinary beings, not its destruction.

Could it possibly be, Heimdall, that in the arrogance of believing that you Asir are greater than the balance upon which all the universe rests that you have brought Ragnarok on yourselves?"

Heimdall considered, his clawed hands still clenched, not so much out of anger now as from the ache of a painful truth. He shut his eye against it.

What **had **Loki done other than what fate ordained? He had been charged at formation with the odious task of maintaining the balance of evil in the 9 worlds. Cast, as they all were, in an unalterable role by forces not even the god's could change.

They had pursued him in their pain, their outrage...and yes, their arrogance. Without Loki evil would still remain and it would grow unchecked, free to overwhelm the 9 worlds. And yet, without it, good would stagnate, become soft and weak willed. Balance of power disrupted they would return to the state of chaos from which the universe began...and would end. It would be a catastrophic collapse of the fabric of reality resulting from their own vainglorious disdain for the sacred balance.

That would be Ragnarok.

"Is this what you truly want Heimdall?"

"No."

Heimdall opened his eyes, he was alone in the shining circle of light.

He would not cease to fight Loki, so long as Skoll chased the sun and Hatti pursued the moon. As all men must struggle against evil to avoid falling into chaos when the thread of fate is finally cut. But no matter how he fought him one thing was true. In his soul he had known it all along.

He would not kill Loki.

He must not.


End file.
